Day Had Broken: The Truth Can Hurt
by Jestino
Summary: HR Oneshot. Hermione visits Ron in the hospital wing after his near death experience with the poison, and muses about the risks of displaying how she truly feels. A missing scene from HalfBlood Prince. Read and Review Please!


**The Hardest Thing – Day Had Broken

* * *

**

The sun was warm and bright and it filtered through the white, pristine blinds of the Hogwarts' Hospital wing, sending shafts of light across the large room. You could just make out the sky through the blinds, drawn across the large windows: a clear, crisp blue, with just a tinge of gold on the horizon. Clearly, the day had just broken.

Madam Pomfrey scuttled across the ward, her white apron freshly pressed and hair pulled back into her cap. She drew the blinds covering the windows up, and smoothed down the covers of the many spotless beds lying in rows, as she passed.

In one of these beds lay a young man, with shocking red hair and a very freckly face. His eyes were closed and, in his sleep, he was peaceful; however, if you looked closely enough you could see dark bags under his eyes, as although he had just been through a rather tiring ordeal.

The sunlight seemed to grow stronger, and the boy rolled over in his sleep, his eyes squinting against the beams of light. As he was shuffling, the door of the ward opened and a young girl walked in. Her posture slightly bent due to the large amount of books she was carrying, thrown haphazardly into a bag that was swung over her shoulder, and her rather unruly brown hair pulled back into a three second bun.

Her expression was anxious and her eyes seemed to widen with worry at the sight of the boy. But then again, there may have been a glint of something else.

"Has he been alright?"

Madam Pomfrey had greeted the regular visitor with a smile, and nodded, her index finger to her lips.

"Yes, Miss Granger, he has been quite alright. A steady improvement from yesterday, I must say. He's sleeping at the moment

"Can I still stay with him?"

Hermione looked at the matron, her eyes pleading.

"Yes, well… I suppose so," Madam Pomfrey agreed grudgingly. "Since you do have the Headmaster's Headmaster's permission." She snorted when she said this, clearly thinking that Dumbledore's permission did not amount to much. "But try not to wake him, dear, it's early yet."

She conceded, set off down the ward towards a large cupboard, and began rummaging through it.

Hermione gave a faint smile, walked over to the bed where the boy was lying and drew up a chair. She chuckled slightly as she looked down at his sleeping face, but her eyes were filled with tears.

"You stupid, stupid boy, Ronald Weasley."

It was just so hard, knowing that he could've easily been gone, and that she never would've spoken to him again. It was hard to come to terms with hurt feelings and feelings she didn't want to admit. It was hard to think that she could've lost him and her chance of being with him, in one stroke. It was hard to realise that life was short and, most of all, it was hard to say the things that she so desperately wanted to say.

Her heart seemed to be fighting an eternal battle; a war raging between wanting to know the answer and between the inevitable changes that would take place once she knew it. It just seemed that the risk would be too great, to tell him how she felt. She could lose her best friend, and things would never be the same.

And what would happen if he felt the same way? Would he eventually treat her as now he was treating Lavender; with that same distant, cold-shouldering indifference, tossed aside with uninterest until they just fell apart? And how would it effect their friendship with Harry? Would she lose that too?

She wiped her face with her sleeve, as the tears that had been threatening to fall for so long, were suddenly falling thick and fast.

It was just that the risk of not speaking, the risk of not telling, was far too great as well. She would never know what he would've thought and for the rest of her life she would be forced to wonder what might have happened between them. Life was too short to keep her feelings concealed …She would have never forgiven herself if he had died from that terrible poison and she had not told him the truth.

But he hadn't died; the bezoar had saved him and for now he was alright. Free to be annoying, and exasperating, and loveable, all at once.

"You stupid, stupid boy."

"And why, exactly, do you keep saying that?" Ron had spoken weakly, his eyes half opened and on his mouth played a grin.

She wanted to throw her arms around him, chide him for almost leaving her, laugh with joy that he was safe and conscious and, most of all, to tell him how she felt.

But Hermione Granger did none of these things, for the risk was too great to take.

Instead, she smiled and asked him if he was feeling any better and the two friends continued to talk about mundane things, skirting around the issue that they had become so adept at skirting around; the issue that made them fight, cry and laugh, all at once.

They stayed side by side until the sun drifted higher into the sky and the golden tinge disappeared from the horizon. Side by side they sat, fighting feelings and raw emotions that they both held; both desperately wanting to say to the other how they felt, but not wanting to be the first one to speak of it.

So morning had broken on another day at Hogwarts and two friends who wanted more from each other, but never spoke of it, sat laughing at Madam Pince's unrequited love for Filch and what would happen if they both got stuck in a broom cupboard.

They hadn't told each other yet, but perhaps one day they would. Perhaps they would both, one day, show the courage that had gained them their place in Gryffindor, that had led them through so many dangerous tasks; afraid but willing. Perhaps the courage for this particular task was harder to gain, for it's the hardest thing to bare your soul, and then run the risk of being shut down by the person that you love.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

This has probably been done before; except I so wanted to see what exactly stopped Hermione or Ron from telling each other how they felt; and I decided a week after a near death experience was the right time to do it.;-D

I'm sorry it wasn't more lighthearted (like my L/J one), except I had been wanting to write a one-shot for a while and I wanted to do one that could coincide with canon. So with a blinding stroke of un-original inspiration, I decided I would do it. Yeah...Please review and tell me what you think! I want to do a nice, cheerful, lighthearted fiction for them, and I want to know if you guys like the idea! **REVIEW!** (please) ;-D. It really makes me grin, and I would do it for you!

Love, Jestin


End file.
